Lao PDR

Meet Eight Health Workers Who Love Their Jobs

Carol Bales — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:44:27 +0000

This post originally appeared on VITAL, the blog of IntraHealth International.

“I love my job!” says one enthusiastic health worker in Laos. And he backs up his statement with a solid reason: “I like to save my patient’s life.”

Kenechanh Chanthapadith relates a typical day on the job, sharing an example about a woman who complained of abdominal pain. “I examined her and I found that she had an ectopic pregnancy,” he says. “I sent her immediately to Mahosot Hospital to get an operation. And she’s alive now!”

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer and Carol Bales

Publication Date:

April 2014

A Day in the Life of a Pretest: Applying CapacityPlus’s New Health Worker Productivity Tool

Carol Bales — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:24:07 +0000

A Day in the Life of a Pretest: Applying CapacityPlus’s New Health Worker Productivity Tool

An important part of any field test of a new tool is to pretest the data collection instruments to ensure they are easy-to-use and comprehensible, as well as to provide hands-on experience and practice for the data collectors.

Our pretest is in Pakgneum District, about an hour’s drive from Vientiane, the capital of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). Our team is led by Dr. Loun Manivong, deputy director of the Lao PDR Ministry of Health’s Department of Health Personnel.

When we arrive, we are warmly welcomed by the director of the district hospital and the staff. They are pleased to be selected to support the Ministry in its field test of CapacityPlus’s new Productivity Diagnostic and Improvement Toolkit.

Author's name:

Wanda Jaskiewicz

Publication Date:

June 2013

Health Is Wealth

Carol Bales — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:14:43 +0000

This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.

Meet three men in Africa who share two key beliefs: access to health care for all people is vital, and healthy people build strong economies.

Samuel Nugblega of the Christian Health Association of Ghana believes in helping his country develop economically by improving the health of Ghanaians. “Health is fundamental to everything,” he says. “And from Ghana, we say health creates wealth.” To bring this about, Samuel works to support the health workers who deliver vital services.

Author's name:

Carol Bales and Sarah Dwyer

Publication Date:

April 2013

Who Deserves Our Thanks? Health Workers Who Save Lives

Carol Bales — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:22:42 +0000

I’m afraid of snakes. It’s such a clichéd fear that I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but there it is. Hiking on a steep and winding trail recently, I turned a corner and almost stomped on a giant snake. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t seen it at the last second.

In Accra, Ghana, one person’s reptilian encounter didn’t turn out so lucky. A very poisonous species bit him and he went into shock. The snakebite would have been fatal. Fortunately, a health worker was there to save his life.

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer

Publication Date:

April 2013

How Using the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit Resulted in Policy Change in Lao PDR

Carol Bales — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:49:37 +0000

Last week, the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit was published and is now available to all to conduct a rapid discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey in order to design evidence-based health worker incentives. As one of the authors, I’m proud of how this toolkit was inspired from two intensive in-country applications. Developed from field testing experiences in both Uganda and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), it documents the entire survey process from planning and logistics to implementation to data analysis and presenting results to key stakeholders. The toolkit has already been used to incite real change for the health workforce.

Soon after joining the CapacityPlus project in early 2012, I contributed to the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit’s refining stages, capturing step by step how a rapid DCE survey can be implemented.

Author's name:

Rachel Deussom

Publication Date:

December 2012

You Can’t Say Enough About Leadership

Carol Bales — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:16:03 +0000

During a recent visit to a district hospital in the Vientiane municipality of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, I was once again reminded of the critical influence effective leadership has in strengthening health workforce productivity.

Since the region’s development of its strategic action plan, Vision 2009, the hospital director has taken implementation of his hospital’s plan to provide quality health care very seriously. This was especially evident in the productivity gains that he recounted to our visiting team: from 2006 to 2012, outpatient visits increased from 6,000 to 16,000 per year while institutional deliveries rose from 85 to 250.

Author's name:

Wanda Jaskiewicz

Publication Date:

November 2012